Consumer Expenditure Survey

CONSUMER EXPENDITURES--2015

For release: 10:00 a.m. (EDT), Tuesday, August 30, 2016 USDL-16-1768
Technical Information: (202) 691-6900 • CEXInfo@bls.gov • www.bls.gov/cex
Media Contact : (202) 691-5902 • PressOffice@bls.gov
CONSUMER EXPENDITURES--2015
Average expenditures per consumer unit(1) for 2015 were $55,978, a 4.6 percent
increase from 2014 levels, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
During the same period, the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) was virtually
unchanged, rising 0.1 percent(2). In 2014, spending increased 4.7 percent.
Average pre-tax income per consumer unit increased at a slightly slower pace
than expenditures, up 4.1 percent from 2014 to $69,629.
All major components of household spending increased in 2015, as shown in
table A. Of these, expenditures on personal insurance and pensions showed the
greatest percentage increase, 10.9 percent. This was followed by education
expenditures, rising 6.4 percent, transportation expenditures, rising 4.7
percent, and entertainment expenditures, rising 4.2 percent.
Expenditures on food, housing, and apparel and services showed smaller,
positive gains between 3.4 percent and 3.9 percent, while expenditures on cash
contributions, increased 1.7 percent. Healthcare expenditures rose 1.2 percent
in 2015.
Spending patterns, 2014-15
Personal insurance and pensions expenditures rose 10.9 percent to $6,349. This
was primarily driven by the 11.4 percent increase in pensions and Social
Security expenditures. In particular, non-payroll deposits to retirement plans,
such as IRAs and Keoghs, rose 45.2 percent to $795 and payroll deductions for
private pensions increased 25.2 percent to $645.
Education expenditures increased 6.4 percent. This was largely driven by a
63.7 percent increase in finance, late, and interest charges for student loans
to $157.
Transportation expenditures increased 4.7 percent to $9,503. Within
transportation, expenditures on vehicle purchases increased 21.1 percent, while
spending on gasoline and motor oil declined 15.3 percent, continuing trends
highlighted in the 2014-15 midyear report.
Expenditures on cash contributions reversed their 2013 and 2014 declines,
increasing by 1.7 percent.
Expenditures on the discretionary categories of food away from home and
entertainment continued increasing in 2015, up 7.9 percent and 4.2 percent
respectively, after increasing 6.2 percent and 9.9 percent in 2014.
Table A. Average expenditures and income of all consumer units and percent
changes, 2013-2015(1)
________________________________________________________________________________
Percent change
Item 2013 2014 2015 2013-2014 2014-2015
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average income before taxes $63,784 $66,877 $69,629 4.8 4.1
Average annual expenditures 51,100 53,495 55,978 4.7 4.6
Food 6,602 6,759 7,023 2.4 3.9
Food at home 3,977 3,971 4,015 -0.2 1.1
Food away from home 2,625 2,787 3,008 6.2 7.9
Housing 17,148 17,798 18,409 3.8 3.4
Shelter 10,080 10,491 10,742 4.1 2.4
Utilities 3,737 3,921 3,885 4.9 -0.9
Household furnishings
and equipment 1,542 1,581 1,818 2.5 15.0
Apparel and services 1,604 1,786 1,846 11.3 3.4
Transportation 9,004 9,073 9,503 0.8 4.7
Vehicle purchases 3,271 3,301 3,997 0.9 21.1
Gasoline and motor oil 2,611 2,468 2,090 -5.5 -15.3
Healthcare 3,631 4,290 4,342 n/a 1.2
Health insurance 2,229 2,868 2,977 n/a 3.8
Entertainment 2,482 2,728 2,842 9.9 4.2
Education 1,138 1,236 1,315 8.6 6.4
Cash contributions 1,834 1,788 1,819 -2.5 1.7
Personal insurance 5,528 5,726 6,349 3.6 10.9
and pensions
Life and personal
insurance 319 327 333 2.5 1.8
Pensions and Social
Security 5,209 5,399 6,016 3.6 11.4
All other expenditures 2,129 2,311 2,530 8.5 9.5
(1)Subcategories do no sum to 100%.
n/a - Because of the questionnaire change for health insurance, the 2013-14
percent change is not strictly comparable to prior years.
________________________________________________________________________________
Spending by composition of consumer unit
Consumer Expenditure Survey (CE) data measure how consumers allocate their
spending among the various components of average annual expenditures. Table B
compares the shares allocated to selected major expenditure categories by
composition of consumer unit in 2015. One parent households with at least one
child under 18 allocated just over one-half of their total spending to food and
housing; they reported the highest shares of spending on food and housing among
the groups studied.
Over 10 percent of total spending for married couple only households went to
healthcare, almost twice as large a share as reported by one parent households
(5.2 percent). Married couple with children households allocated the highest
share of all groups to personal insurance and pensions (13.3 percent), while
other married couple households (those with married couples and persons other
than children living in the consumer unit) allocated the highest share to
transportation (19.2 percent).
Table B. Shares of average annual expenditures on selected major components
by composition of consumer unit, 2015
_____________________________________________________________________________
Item Married Married Other
couple couple married
only with couple
children consumer
units
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food 11.8 13.1 12.2
Housing 31.3 31.2 30.8
Transportation 16.6 17.6 19.2
Healthcare 10.2 6.8 7.9
Personal insurance and pensions 11.6 13.3 12.8
_____________________________________________________________________________
Item One Single
parent, person
at least, and other
one child consumer
under 18 units
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food 13.4 12.5
Housing 36.8 35.7
Transportation 17.5 16.3
Healthcare 5.2 7.1
Personal insurance and pensions 8.9 9.3
_____________________________________________________________________________
Spending by income quintile
Table C shows the percent change for expenditures by income quintile.
Overall spending increased in all five quintiles, ranging from 1.1 percent in
the third quintile to 5.9 percent in the highest quintile. Personal insurance
and pensions showed the largest overall increases across income quintiles,
9.0 percent to 18.2 percent. Food away from home expenditures also increased
across all income quintiles, with increases ranging from 1.4 percent to 10.5
percent. Spending on apparel and services was mixed across quintiles, with the
highest two quintiles increasing by 11.0 percent and 6.8 percent respectively,
the lowest two quintiles changing less than 2.0 percent, and the third quintile
down 15.1 percent. Cash contributions were also mixed by quintile, with the
middle three quintiles reporting lower contributions and the lowest and highest
quintiles showing increases. Transportation expenditures rose for all income
quintiles, with the magnitude of the rise increasing as the level of income
increased.
Table C. Dollar change and percent change in average annual expenditures on
major components by income quintile, 2014-15
______________________________________________________________________________
Lowest Second Third
Item Dollar Percent Dollar Percent Dollar
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average annual expenditure change:
Total $757 3.2 $1,517 4.5 $517
Food 100 2.7 268 5.6 -193
At home -7 -0.3 133 4.3 -225
Away from home 106 9.2 135 8.3 32
Housing 247 2.6 324 2.6 361
Apparel and services -10 -1.2 17 1.5 -231
Transportation 4 0.1 227 4.0 345
Healthcare 62 3.3 171 5.2 -61
Entertainment 162 14.7 172 11.0 -146
Cash contributions 206 40.6 -80 -7.1 -84
Personal insurance and pensions 91 18.2 146 9.1 427
All other expenditures -105 -5.0 273 14.2 99
______________________________________________________________________________
Third Fourth Highest
Item Percent Dollar Percent Dollar Percent
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average annual expenditure change:
Total 1.1 $3,254 5.4 $6,145 5.9
Food -3.2 386 5.0 755 6.5
At home -6.1 44 1.0 271 4.5
Away from home 1.4 343 10.5 485 8.7
Housing 2.3 840 4.3 1,215 3.8
Apparel and services -15.1 126 6.8 400 11.0
Transportation 4.1 486 4.5 1,046 6.2
Healthcare -1.5 245 4.8 -171 -2.4
Entertainment -6.2 83 2.8 290 5.1
Cash contributions -5.9 -23 -1.2 123 3.1
Personal insurance and pensions 12.0 921 13.7 1,467 9.0
All other expenditures 3.8 191 5.2 1,019 13.6
______________________________________________________________________________
Other available data
CE data include the expenditures and income of consumers, as well as the
demographic characteristics of those consumers. Tables with more expenditure
detail are available at www.bls.gov/cex. Published tables provide 2015 CE data
by standard classifications that include income quintile, income decile, income
class, age of reference person, size of consumer unit, number of earners,
composition of consumer unit, region of residence, housing tenure, type of area
(urban-rural), race, Hispanic origin, occupation, and highest education level of
any member. The classes in the income class table have been revamped to provide
more detail at income levels above $70,000 and less detail at levels below
$40,000. These annual tables include means, shares, and standard errors. Other
tables available on the website include expenditures by age, region, size, or
gender cross-tabulated by income before taxes and other demographic variables.
Historical tables back to 1984 and tabulations for selected metropolitan areas
are also available.
Future articles in the BLS Beyond the Numbers web report series will highlight
recent trends in prices and spending in the U.S. economy, and will feature 2015
CE data. Recent CE-specific Beyond the Numbers articles provide analyses of
topical economic issues and long term spending trends, as well as comparisons
of CE data to other data series (see www.bls.gov/cex/csxwebarticles.htm). Other
survey information available on the internet includes answers to frequently
asked questions, a glossary, order forms for survey products, and analytical
articles that use CE data. Also available are the Diary Survey questionnaire
form and a modified version of the computer assisted personal interviewing
(CAPI) instrument used to collect the Interview Survey data.
The 2015 CE public-use microdata, including Interview Survey data, Diary Survey
data, and paradata (information about the survey process), are available on the
CE website for free electronic download. The Interview files contain expenditure
data in two different formats: MTBI files that present monthly values in an
item-coding framework based on the CPI pricing scheme, and EXPN files that
organize expenditures by the section of the Interview questionnaire in which
they are collected. Expenditure values on EXPN files cover different time
periods depending on the specific questions asked, and the files also contain
relevant non-expenditure information not found on the MTBI files. The
public-use microdata for 2015 also includes the new estimates of state and
federal tax liabilities. The CE introduced these estimates in 2013 to improve
the quality of the tax data. The tax data collected directly from consumer units
during the Interview survey are no longer available. CE public-use microdata
from 1996 to 2014 are also available on the CE website for free download. For
releases prior to 1996, users can continue to purchase USB Flash Drives using
the public-use microdata order form (see www.bls.gov/cex/pumd.htm).
For further information, contact the Division of Consumer Expenditure Surveys,
Office of Prices and Living Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics at
cexinfo@bls.gov or (202) 691-6892. Information in this release is available to
sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; Federal
Relay Service: 1 (800) 877-8339.
1 Consumer units include families, single persons living alone or sharing a
household with others but who are financially independent, or two or more
persons living together who share expenses.
2 This is calculated as the percentage change between the annual average CPI-U
for all items for 2015 (237.017) and the annual average CPI-U for all items
for 2014 (236.736). See CPI Detailed Report, Data for December 2015, Table 1A.